Chicago Patterns

Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Charnley House, Part 3

Rachel Freundt

October 12, 2017

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[Rachel Freundt/Chicago Patterns]

In the final installment of this three-part series examining the relationship between the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his mentor Louis Sullivan and the controversy surrounding the James Charnley House (1891-92), I will closely examine the remarkable interior of this landmark design, the first house anywhere in the world to embrace modernism in its complete elimination of historical detail and emphasis on abstract forms and geometric simplicity, anticipating the architecture of the twenties and thirties. The inside spaces are just as avant-garde as the home’s exterior, which was discussed in Part 2. In An Autobiography Frank Lloyd Wright called it “the first modern house in America.”

Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Charnley House, Part 2

Rachel Freundt

April 26, 2017

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Architectural Drawing of the James Charnley House [Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection]

In this three-part series, I will be examining the relationship between the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his mentor Louis Sullivan, specifically in the controversy surrounding one of the most important designs in early modern architecture: the James Charnley House, constructed between 1891-92, in Chicago’s Gold Coast. Although Adler & Sullivan were the architects of record at the time of construction, since the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright has been routinely listed alongside them (or sometimes alone) since he wrote in An Autobiography in 1932 that he solely designed the home. No one challenged this assertion, especially Adler & Sullivan, as both were long dead by the time Wright’s memoir was published. Although the commission was widely published in architectural journals of the time, like the August 1891 issue of Inland Architect and the January 1892 issue of Architectural Record as one of Sullivan’s most important works, Sullivan’s name was mostly omitted from discussions of the Charnley House for the next half century. Even Hugh Sullivan’s 1935 monograph on Louis Sullivan, the first detailed assessment of the architect’s work, validated Wright’s claims first made in An Autobiography. No sketches, no plans, no furnished interior photos survive of the home. Because of this lack of concrete contemporary evidence and the fact that scholars never conducted a detailed investigation over the years, one can see how easy it was for Wright to claim this ground-breaking design as his own.

Robie House: Masterpiece of Glass and Light

Andi Marie

January 30, 2015

25 comments

Andi Marie/Chicago Patterns

It all started when Frederick C. Robie purchased a 60 by 180-ft. lot at 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave. from Harold Goodman. This was the beginning of what would change the face of architecture in Chicago and beyond.

Fred and Lora Robie commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to create a masterpiece. Mr. Robie and Mr. Wright admired each other and were both forward thinkers who weren’t afraid to push limits. Wright would later call the house he built for the Robie family as his best work.

Beverly Hills, Chicago

Andi Marie

May 14, 2014

12 comments

FLW Beverly Chicago 2 March 22 2013 038

Twelve miles south of The Loop is Beverly. A very beautiful community of wealth, historical architecture, luscious trees, fabled Longwood Drive, and a castle.

Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Charnley House, Part 3

Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Charnley House, Part 2

Robie House: Masterpiece of Glass and Light

Beverly Hills, Chicago

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